Leaving home at the age of 15 to pursue a life in music, Aiken played in cities from New York to Seattle. With a wealth of experience at an early age, she returned to Georgia and helped draw attention to the folk and acoustic music scene in Decatur and Atlanta in the 1980s.

Aiken caught a huge break in 1985, getting tapped to open for Bonnie Raitt, and her fame quickly grew. She later went on to perform and record with top national acts, among them the Indigo Girls (who actually opened for Aiken back when they were relative unknowns), Muddy Waters, Randy Newman, Arlo Guthrie, Little Feat, Jerry Jeff Walker and David Bromberg, among many others.

Her original songs range from rockers to ballads, with topics from the political to the personal. Her latest disc is 2010’s “Welcome Home.”